Welcome to the official site for the VRTO Meetup – Virtual Reality, Toronto.

VRTO is an event producer and productivity-oriented think tank, meetup and discovery group for innovators, developers, inventors, storytellers, content producers, entrepreneurs, hackers, modders, programmers, pioneers, ontologists and adventurers in virtual, augmented and blended reality technologies, content and their development.

We are also a consultancy, content producer and offer a wide variety of services from VR equipment rentals to human resources and networking opportunities. Contact us to learn more. Download the list of services (PDF).

VRTO Meetups include practical, actionable, exploratory, philosophical and technical discussions as well as content demos about contemporary virtual and augmented reality, opportunities and threats, blue sky and resource swapping.

Join VRTO’s Meetup Group Now:

Created in April of 2015 by founder Keram Malicki-Sanchez, the meetup has quickly grown into a variety of initiatives, community outreach, networks, festivals and conferences including the FIVARS VR/AR International Stories festival and competition and the VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo – the largest in Canada 2016-2019!

All of our Meetups are 100% free to the public!

VRTO puts on public-facing events in undercovered areas of the market here is a timeline of key events we have hosted and produced:

2015

• VAR showcase at Ryerson University’s LaunchZone – Ontario’s largest ever virtual and augmented reality showcase
• Camp Wavelength on Toronto Island – over 150 demos were served to artists and music lovers at one of the summer’s top-rated music festivals
• FIVARS – Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories – three venues including Metro Hall Rotunda, UG3 Live and Cadillac Lounge – over 23 projects from 12 countries, 2 sold out 8-hour days, and 2 free community outreach days served over 1000 demo to the public

2016

• Meetup about Spatialized Audio, Business of VR, photogrammetry
• FIVARS 2016 at the 5000 square foot MSMU warehouse and sponsored by Jaunt and DEEP Inc. featuring 3 sold out days and over 350 visitors

FIVARS Awards

• The Inaugural VRTO World Conference and Expo at Mattamy Centre (formerly Maple Leaf Gardens). Read our VRTO 2016 report.
• Organized VR EXPERIENCE CENTRE at ProFusion Expo 2016
• FIVARS at Camp Wavelength on Toronto Island
• CNE Innovation Garage
• Year End Industry Wrap-Up and VR Art Talks

2017

• VRTO World Conference & Expo at Ryerson’s Rogers Communications Centre featuring 100 speakers and 65+ Exhibitors and Installations. Read our VRTO 2017 report
• FIVARS at ideaCity
• FIVARS special presentation on Spatialized Narrative at UploadLA
• FIVARS 2017 at House of VR
• FIVARS Awards
• Meetup on Powerful Systems for VR Creation and Distribution

2018

• VRTO World Conference & Expo 2018 at Ryerson’s Rogers Communications Centre featuring 100 speakers and 65+ Exhibitors and Installations. Read our report on VRTO 2018
• FIVARS 2018 at Matador Ballroom
• FIVARS Awards

2019

• Pimax Special Event Meetup – Canadian Public Debut – at House of VR with support for ideaboost/Canadian Film Center
• VRTO 2019 Conference – The Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference at the Toronto Media Arts Centre
• The VRTO conference also teamed up with Ontario Tech to present a special VR learning workshop, colocated with the conference. OCAD was also a partner
• Co-presenter Projection Mapping Workshop with Maziart using Isadora at Charles Street Video
• FIVARS 2019 at Toronto Media Arts Centre followed by the FIVARS Awards

2020

• Produced a series of Meetups teaching members how to use Mozilla Hubs
• Designed and deployed The Flotilla – a multi-platform, multi-modal 30-day VR conference online
• Meetup about Making Money in WebXR, NFTs, the Blockchain

Toronto is a powerhouse for independent games development, technology and filmmaking and arts and culture. This meetup is targeted towards drawing the brightest and best, the curious and motivated, the adventurous and courageous together with the aim of pushing this paradigm-shifting new medium towards its best and upper limits.

2021

• Designed and deployed The Flotilla – a multi-platform, multi-modal 30-day VR conference online

2022

• VRTO’s online conference “The Flotilla” is nominated for World of the Year at the 2022 Poly Awards
• July – VRTO’s conference returns live and in-person to Toronto, this time at OCAD University in the heart of downtown. Read more about VRTO at OCADU and their students and faculty who participated